If you want the stark contrast like the brown quilt, you need to make sure you have a large difference in the fabrics you have on the edges. I've found having dark next to dark won't give you as much "Pop" as having dark next to light.
with the brown, it was laid out with the darkest brown one end, and the lightest tan on the other. with the blue/red, it ended up with a mid blue on one end, and a mid red on the other, and the contrast didn't work out like I had hoped.
the lines of most contrast in the red/blue quilt is between the darkest red and the white/red print, which was more in the middle of the pattern so it dilutes the bold look of the design.
Look over your pattern and decide where you want the boldest contrast to be, and then make sure you have your fabric laid out so it matches that. Some bargellos have a wave pattern where you don't really have that. the one I did has a bold diamond shape repeated, and it got "lost" in the red/blue quilt because of the order the colors were laid out to begin with.